Questions about Sways
 

Ok.. after searching like crazy I couldn't find a definite answer. I have a rear MS sway bar and want to install it, but how would the car drive with only the rear stiffer? More understeer/oversteer? And what do you guys think if I were to buy the font RB and have that mix? Glad to hear your opinions! :)

The rear bar will make the rear stiffer not the front. You can mix and match if you want. So people will debate either way.

The rear only will make you spin out more. Oversteer.

What I'm really trying to do is reduce the understeer. How would I be able to do that? Front stiffer or rear stiffer? That's why I'm thinking of the mix.

Stiffer rear.

But your understeer problem is caused by the driver going to fast into the corner, not the car.

I think most will agree the Eight is pretty netural out of the box.

it could be a lot of other factors too, tires, road temp, etc. But I just want to limit the understeer as must as I can. So pretty much it comes down to, should I install the rear only? or opt out and get front and rear. This seems like a dumb question because getting both sounds right, but money is a factor too. Would just having the rear make enough of a difference.

As a point of reference, I was installing my RB sways and tried my car out with only the rear bar on. I definitely felt that it was not a good idea just to have only the rear bar on, as I was getting oversteer like crazy and it didn't feel controllable at speed at all. But the RB sways are significantly stiffer (for the rear I'm guessing like 80-100%) than stock and the mazdaspeed sways are just barely stiffer, so you may get the results you desire with just the rear.

Definitely don't mix the front RB sway and MS rear sway though, your car will be biased more towards understeer with the much stiffer front (118%) vs rear (something like 10% iono). The RB front and rear setup was already meant to have a tad of understeer at the limit for safety.

Thanks Ishu,

That was the answer I was looking for. Has anyone on this fourm ever installed the rear MS only?

Ever autocross your RX-8 I found it to understeer alot even accelerating though the sweeper.

Had to throttle lift over-steer to get inside the last cone.

I read it's possible to dial out the understeer. It's believed that manufacturers intentionally add a bit of understeer to accommodate the lowest common denominator.

That figure is closer if not a bit more than the 200% mark, as I recall.

Rotor, You running a stagered set up? Only reason I ask is my 8 is really balanced with only a little oversteer(unless I wana let it hang out :rock: ) If understeer is a big problem, try your bar and see how handles.

No, i'm still on the stock wheels, I'm trying to figure out what to do before I try to buy parts and install.

Ha! I had a blonde moment, at this point and time it might be my tires. I have S-03's in the rear and my stock Dunlops in the front. Now, some suspension work should counter this right?

Switch the tires around. The stickier rubber in front might permit a bit of throttle oversteer with the looser tires in the back.

You should always have the better tires on the front.

Trying to bias a little into oversteer is great for a track car, but unwise for a street car.
You need to always leave a safety margin, and having to control oversteer while driving in trafic is asking for trouble.
Take the car to several autocrosses, HPDE's (with an instructor), and open track days to get a feel for the car's handling/ learn how to work arround the car's natural understeer tendencies before starting to mess with the car's settings.

The first part to upgrade in any car to better it's performance is the seat to steeringwheel interface.